How to Turn a Video into an Animated GIF

Regardless of the rise of HTML5 video, the snappy little animated GIF continue to be hugely popular – partially due to their relatively small quality, that is friendly to cellular devices on limited data plans, and partially since the format is really broadly supported.

Sites like Giphy are a good supply of ready-made animations, but may you are able to only express yourself by creating your own -along with the right tools, it is a surprisingly easy process.

If you have a relevant video file, skip right to third step to learn how to edit and convert it. Alternatively, you are able to grab and convert a relevant video from YouTube, as described in the first step, or create a recording out of your desktop, as described in second step. That is a great way to create a GIF from the game or movie playing on your computer.

1. Download a relevant video from YouTube

If you wish to create a GIF from the video online, Facebook or other video hosting site, Freemake Video Downloader may be the fastest and easiest tool to do the job, and it is free.

Download Freemake Video Downloader and run the installer, selecting “Custom installation” once the choice is presented. You will be provided a totally free download from the Chromium browser and check Manager Extension for Chrome, so uncheck these two if you’d rather prevent them.

Now discover the video you need to save inside your internet browser and duplicate the URL, the address bar. Open Freemake Video Downloader and click on Paste URL, and also the video is going to be downloaded immediately for your Videos folder. You are able to alter the standard settings while using Optional Parameters settings, however for creating animated GIFs the defaults is going to be fine.

You need to note that you ought to only download videos for those who have permission in the copyright holder.

2. Record a relevant video on your desktop

If you wish to create a GIF from the game or any other software, you’ll need free screen recorder OBS Studio. It could look intimidating initially glance, but it’s remarkably simple to use.

Download OBS Studio and run the installer (there aren’t any undesirable extras to bother with, so that you can accept the default settings), then launch this program. Look towards the end from the screen and you’ll visit a box labeled “Sources”. Click on the plus icon here and choose either “Display capture” or “Game capture”, based on whether you need to record a course running inside a window on your hard drive, or perhaps a full-screen game.

Once you’re ready, click on the “Start recording” button around the right, then minimize OBS Studio and do anything you want to record. When you’ve finished, increase the recorder and click on “Stop recording”. The recording is going to be saved instantly inside your Videos folder. FLV may be the default format, which is acceptable for our purposes. Don’t be concerned concerning the extra footage individuals messing about using the screen recorder – we’ll trim that away next.

3. Edit and cut video

ShotCut is the most popular free tool for editing short videos. It’s free, doesn’t add watermarks for your videos, and possesses plenty of handy tools and filters.

Install ShotCut, and then run it. Click “Open file” and select your video to load it in to the editor. Whether it needs popping, click “Filters”, then click on the plus icon to include a brand new filter. Click on the small monitor icon to determine video filters, after which click “Crop”. Now you can make use of the sliders to regulate just how much is stop the very best, bottom and sides from the video.

When you’re happy, click on the video preview and drag it in to the timeline at the end from the screen. You’re now prepared to begin cutting. Brevity is important for excellent GIFs, and ideally they must be a maximum of ten seconds lengthy. Drag the vertical white-colored bar (the playhead) across the waveform before you find the stage where you would like your GIF to begin and click on “Split at playhead”(the icon looks a bit as an open book). Click on the portion of video you need to remove and tap Delete. Now perform the same for that finish from the video.

4. Convert video to GIF

When you’ve trimmed your video lower to some couple of seconds, click Export and choose GIF because the format. Now check out the resolution. How big the GIF is determined by where you’re planning for doing things, however a resolution of 800 x 600 ought to be acceptable for most purposes. Click on the “Codec”tab and alter the codec to GIF, then click “Audio” and choose “Disable audio”.

Finally, click “Export file”, provide a reputation ending within the extension .gif and click on save. Congratulations, you’ve switched a relevant video into an animated GIF, prepared to share wherever you want.